


The Three Of Swords

by ElectraRhodes



Series: Delighting in Your Radiance 2017 [8]
Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst With A Mostly Happy Ending, Baltimore, Blame Bryan, But only mostly, Canon Compliant, Canon Typical Violence, Flashbacks, Florence - Freeform, Ghosts, Hurt And Some Comfort, M/M, Season 3 Retold, Story, Symbolism, Tarot Cards, Visual and verbal metaphors, not an au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 04:20:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12522828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectraRhodes/pseuds/ElectraRhodes
Summary: The mess that Hannibal leaves behind when he runs for Florence takes years to unravel. Four years on and the whole story is only just beginning to make sense.Season 3. Retold.





	The Three Of Swords

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PeanutButterJelly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeanutButterJelly/gifts).



> The eighth of fifteen (omgg) new stories for those wonderful people who backed the Radiance Kickstarter 'Delight' Level. Thank you!! The stories are all linked, so if you fancy it you can subscribe to the whole series and as each one posts they'll just turn up in your in-box! Easy. 
> 
> There's a range of styles (fluff, humour, horror, fantasy, and trope), seasons (1,2,3 and post TWOTL, and SOTL too), canon compliant, crossover and AU (can we say coffee shop?), favourites (souls marks, ABO), and lots of wonderful characters (at least two Wendigos). 
> 
> Each backer bid for a minimum of 1000 words of fic. Of course the prompts are just too good to only give them 1000 words. Bring the noise! This one has maybe five chapters.
> 
> Based off a wonderful prompt from peanutbutterjelly ... An excellent job my friend. Just amazing. I hope I do it justice.
> 
> Oh. And maybe bring a hankie for this one.

Three men, all that is left of this particular BAU team gather round the lap top open on one of the benches. The faint glow from the screen only serves to accentuate the shadows and grooves etched on their faces.

Jack Crawford, still Agent in Charge of the Tooth Fairy Case, despite how that’s just gone down, growls at his colleague,

“Show me what we’ve got Jimmy, and don’t fuck around.”

Jimmy all but whines, he’s not great under this kind of pressure and he’s always been a touch scared of his boss.

“It’s not great Jack, the light wasn’t good, just the outside one for the porch and a couple of side lamps indoors. And we’ve only got maybe 15 minutes of anything. The techs have done what they can to clean it up. The sound is abysmal.”

Jack nods,

“And Dolarhyde set it up?”

“He set it up, like with the families. It tracks motion, not much, 180 degrees. It looks like he shot Hannibal first just to even the odds some.”

He clicks play and Zeller, Jack Crawford and Jimmy Price sit back and watch the final death throes of the great red dragon. They all wince, the stabbing, the slicing cut across the stomach, the axe to the leg, the throat torn out. The footage makes everything reek. The sound is almost worse than useless but they do hear Hannibal through the broken window,

“This is all I ever wanted for you Will. For both of us.”

The three men lean in and watch closer and then each sit back in something like shock. Even Jimmy, who has already seen the footage twice.

The cliff top is suddenly empty.

“Show me that again Jimmy, the last bit.”

Jimmy sets the player back about half a minute. They watch again, the dragon falls and spreads his wings.

“I don’t understand. What the fuck did he think he was doing?”

Jimmy Price heaves an almighty sigh.

“You know the Japanese woman? The retainer?”

Jack shrugs, sure he knows Chiyoh, they picked her up two weeks ago, before it all went down.

“What about her?”

“She said, and I quote, ‘Hannibal believed we could bear anything if it was told in a story.’”

He pauses, and slowly, very slowly, Jack nods. 

“Let it be a story then?”

............................

Four years earlier. Baltimore. Maryland....


End file.
